[inquiry]

I was reviewing vugraph from yesterday (great with comments now), when I ran across a comment from one of the commentators that I wondered about.

The situation was this suit...

Commentor said "South's best play is ♠ to the 7

---

Now to be fair, i have shown the suit in isolation, and not given the bidding. But the comment took me so much by suprise I had to evaluate it. I can't see how low to the spade seven is the right play. Best play has to be ACE in case WEST has singleton K, Q or doubleton KQ, and if nothing great shows up, low to the NINE. Chance for 3 tricks is fairly poor (4.1%), but a reasonable shot at 2 tricks.

What is the best way to handle this suit in isolation? When is low to the seven first, better than ACE and then low, and when can low to the NINE be worse than low to the seven?

If you are good at suit combinations, join the thread on that topic in the beginner forum. Not so much solving them, but rather showing good ones...

Ben

[Fluffy]

Small to towards J973 is to pin H10 and H8 at the right, once it doesn´t happen I think either of the non J spades is teh same, next comes ♠A and another one.

[Rebound]

Well the remaining cards in the suit rate to break 4-2. Perhaps it is to cater to honor-doubleton with west (as you have presented the 2 known hands as n/s).

[jtfanclub]

inquiry, on Oct 17 2004, 03:14 AM, said:

I was reviewing vugraph from yesterday (great with comments now), when I ran across a comment from one of the commentators that I wondered about.

The situation was this suit...

Commentor said "South's best play is ♠ to the 7

---

Now to be fair, i have shown the suit in isolation, and not given the bidding. But the comment took me so much by suprise I had to evaluate it. I can't see how low to the spade seven is the right play. Best play has to be ACE in case WEST has singleton K, Q or doubleton KQ, and if nothing great shows up, low to the NINE. Chance for 3 tricks is fairly poor (4.1%), but a reasonable shot at 2 tricks.

What is the best way to handle this suit in isolation? When is low to the seven first, better than ACE and then low, and when can low to the NINE be worse than low to the seven?

If you are good at suit combinations, join the thread on that topic in the beginner forum. Not so much solving them, but rather showing good ones...

Ben

If you have the other suits trapped, so that if RHO wins and leads anything but a spade back you gain a trick on a free finesse or ruff & sluff, I believe the correct play for two tricks is low to the seven.

But then I'm hardly an expert.

[inquiry]

jtfanclub, on Oct 17 2004, 03:18 PM, said:

If you have the other suits trapped, so that if RHO wins and leads anything but a spade back you gain a trick on a free finesse or ruff & sluff, I believe the correct play for two tricks is low to the seven.

But then I'm hardly an expert.

This was a play just considering this single suit in isolation. That is it. No worry about endplay, no worry about what they return. How best to attack this suit. This is why I didn't show the entire hand.

Ben

[Free]

My little program tells me there's a 4% chance for 3 tricks, and 69% for 2 tricks. However, it suggests another line:

Small to the Ace, and small to whatever covers East's card.

[inquiry]

Well, I don't know about small the ACE, but my line is ACE and then small to the NINE, and I could accept small to the nine first, I guess. I just don't think small to the seven is right. Now, it could catch T8 doubelton I guess, but then you aren't playing the seven are you?